Douban Fresh Fish
Fresh fish is deep-fried, then braised in a broth sautéed with doubanjiang (chili bean paste), and finished with a thickened sauce.
Ingredients
Fresh fish (crucian carp preferred, scaled, with gills and innards removed, scored with crosshatch)
1 kg
Douban chili sauce
50 g
Vegetable oil (about 140 g actually used)
800 g
Wet starch (mixed thin for thickening)
20 g
Chili powder
1 g
White pepper
a pinch
Pork bone broth
420 g
Sugar
15 g
Cooking wine
30 g
Salt
3 g
Vinegar
8 g
Soy sauce
10 g
Minced garlic
15 g
Minced scallion (scallion greens)
6 g
MSG
2 g
Instructions
1
Prepare the fresh fish
Remove the scales and gills of the fresh crucian carp, open the belly and take out the innards, then wash clean. Score both sides of the fish with diagonal cuts to form a ladder pattern, with one cut every 1-2 cm in width.
2
Deep-frying
Pour vegetable oil into a wok and heat to 70-80 percent hot over high heat. Add the fish and fry for about 1 minute until both sides turn golden, then remove and drain off the oil.
3
Frying the sauce
Leave about 70-80 g of oil in the wok, heat over high fire until slightly hot, then add the douban chili sauce and chili powder and stir-fry a few times.
4
Braising
When the oil turns red, add minced ginger, pork bone broth, sugar, cooking wine, white pepper, salt, minced garlic, soy sauce, and so on, and stir well. Then place the fried fish back in. Once the soup comes to a boil, transfer to low heat and simmer for 7-8 minutes (flipping the fish once in the middle). Then lift the fish out and place it on a plate.
5
Thickening and pouring sauce
Mix the wet starch with water to make a thin slurry, add scallion greens, vinegar, MSG, and so on, and stir well, then pour over the fish and it is ready to serve.
